Proctor and Gamble

One was a candle maker and the other was a soap maker. One came from England and the other came from Ireland and they both met in Cincinnati, a destination that neither set out for.

William Proctor emigrated to the United States in 1819 after he lost his candle making shop in a fire. Not exactly sure where to settle, but only knowing that he wanted to go to the frontier. As he moved down the Ohio River, his wife Martha took ill and they stopped in Cincinnati so she go get some treatment. Martha soon died, but William liked the Queen City and decided to stay. He soon began making candles again.

James Gamble came from Ireland in 1819 also with his family as they tried to escape a famine stricken Ireland. And like Proctor, Gamble wanted to move to the frontier, however, he was stricken with an illness requiring medical attention which landed him in Cincinnati too. James found a job as an apprentice to a soap maker.

In time, both men began dating girls that turned out to be sisters: Olivia and Elizabeth Norris. It was during this courting period that the 2 men first met and it was their father-in-law that first suggested that the two men might form a business partnership making candles and soap.

In 1837, in fact, on Halloween in 1837, they signed the formal partnership agreement and pledge to each contribute a little over $3500 each to the enterprise.

The candle part of the company did well and the company prospered. However, it would take an accident to pump up the soapy side of the partnership.

The Moon & Stars Logo

The Moon and Stars first began appearing in the 1850s as the unofficial trademark of Procter & Gamble. Wharf hands used the symbol to distinguish boxes of Star Candles. By the 1860s, the Moon and Stars appeared on all Company products and correspondence. Once a staple of the Company's product line, candles declined in popularity with the invention of the electric light bulb and the Company discontinued candle manufacturing in the 1920s.

Keeping Union Soldiers Clean

During the Civil War, Procter & Gamble was awarded several contracts supplying both soap and candles to the Union armies. These orders kept the factory busy day and night, building the Company's reputation as soldiers returned home with their P&G products.

A Long Lunch and A Fortunate Accident

Now to that accident that made the company P&G, a household name. In the 1878, Procter & Gamble began to market a new soap product. This new soap was a high quality bar of soap, but with an inexpensive price tag.

James Norris Gamble, son of the founder and a trained chemist, developed an inexpensive white soap equal to high-quality, imported castile's available in many higher price emporiums of the day. Inspiration for the soap's name — Ivory— came to Harley Procter, the founder's son, as he read the words "out of ivory palaces" in the Bible one Sunday in church. The name seemed a perfect match for the white soap's purity, mildness and long-lasting qualities.

During production one day, a worker accidentally left the soap mixer on while eating his lunch. This created more air in the final product than it was originally intended. Shortly after that, the company started receiving orders for their bars of soap that float which caused some confusion because they didn't sell a soap that floats. After some investigating, they found out what happened. Recognizing the marketing value of this fortunate accident, they changed the formula for the white soap to include the extra mixing. The air actually made the soap lighter than water, causing it to float.

Procter & Gamble then began marketing Ivory soap bars as the "Soap that Floats." In the decades that followed Ivory's development, Procter & Gamble continued to develop new products, but Ivory Soap remains in production today and is, perhaps, the company's most well-known product.